When I got back from my West Coast trip, my plan was to move into the yurt, weatherize it for winter (it was designed for West Coast weather, not Central Texas), and then get started converting Junior, my 2007 Dodge Sprinter, into an in-town stealth camper. However, when I got back, my metamour Lee announced he was moving to a different trailer in the same property. And since the main reason I put the yurt where it is was to be close to him, I’ll need to move, too.

Luckily Lee is letting me stay in the current trailer until he moves, so I have a roof over my head. I think the new location will actually be better, and I’m using the opportunity to build a deck to put the yurt on. The other option I considered was a compressed earth floor, which would be gorgeous and have amazing thermal characteristics, but would also make it harder to keep out bugs and snakes. There’s quite a bit of rescued lumber lying around on property here, so now I’m in the market for the right design.

In the meantime I’m going to try to estimate how many sleeping bags I might need to fully cover the yurt and see if I can go about acquiring those. I’m also going to cut the door down to the same level as the walls, which will vastly simplify sealing and weatherproofing. I left it the same height when I cut the yurt down from 16′ to 13′ to make it fit into the Metro better, but I’m willing to get some extra exercise to make the whole design cleaner. I saw a picture of a Mongolian family, not known for their extreme height, and even *they* had to duck to get into their yurt. If they can, I can.